Jonathan Walker: Government try to persuade Birmingham and Coventry to elect mayors

Our political editor Jonathan Walker on the big issues that are hitting the news.

The big news at Westminster is that Boris Johnson is returning to the House of Commons.

He’s been mayor of London since 2008. Now he wants to try his hand at being an MP again - and perhaps to become Conservative Party leader, if he gets the chance.

But that’s not the only reason people like David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband are talking about mayors.

Because the two big parties have both come to the conclusion that other major cities need to follow London’s example.

They want places like Birmingham and Coventry to elect their own equivalent of Boris - a directly-elected mayor who could take charge of things like public transport and represent the cities on the world stage.

Now, some of us might be feeling a sense of deja vu at this point. Because it’s only as recently as 2012 that the Government tried to persuade Birmingham and Coventry to have mayors.

They ordered the cities to hold referendums – and in both cases, local voters said “no thanks”.

But you know what they say. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

What’s different this time is that politicians in London aren’t so sure that individual cities like Birmingham need a mayor of their own.

Instead, they are keen to get local towns and cities working together.

So that could mean Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country all joining forces – and maybe Coventry too – with one high-profile leader.

It wouldn’t be so different to London, which actually has 32 different councils and one mayor.

Some people might ask how this is really going to make a difference.

But what it could mean is that a single person (helped no doubt by various deputies and a team of officials) takes responsibility for the buses, local train services, policing, improving schools, helping businesses create jobs and much more.

Conservatives, like Chancellor George Osborne, are convinced that this is the way to help the Midlands and the North of England become economic powerhouses – instead of playing second fiddle to London.

Labour isn’t as committed to the idea of mayors but they are moving in the same direction. Lord Adonis, who advises Ed Miliband on local government, backs mayors but it’s not official party policy at the moment.

But it remains to be seen whether party leaders in London can convince the rest of the country that they’d be better off with a Boris of their own.